Anger, Dismay Over Landis Scandal
Saturday, August 5, 2006; 2:04 PM
PARIS -- Cycling is a circus and the thrill is gone _ from this year's Tour de France anyway.
That was the lament from some cycling fans and former pros to news that Floyd Landis tested positive again for doping.
  2006 Tour de France winner Floyd Landis of the U.S. holds his trophy on the podium after the final stage of the 93rd Tour de France cycling race between Antony, south of Paris, and Paris, in this July 23, 2006 file photo. Landis' backup "B" sample confirms high levels of testosterone, the International Cycling Union announced Saturday, Aug. 5, 2006, in a result that could see him stripped of his Tour de France title and banned for two years. (AP Photo/Peter Dejong) (Peter Dejong - AP) TOUR DE FRANCE Floyd Landis's second drug test confirms inappropriate levels of testosterone, setting him up to become the first Tour de France champion to be stripped of his title for doping.
Essay: Driven to win, Landis may lose it all.
If Landis is stripped of the title, runner-up Oscar Pereiro is the likely new winner.
Former riders and cycling fans react to the news about Landis.
QUOTE SHEET"I have never taken any banned substance, including testosterone. I was the strongest man at the Tour de France, and that is why I am the champion." -- Landis, in a statement.
"It goes without saying that for us Floyd Landis is no longer the winner of the 2006 Tour de France." -- Tour de France director Christian Prudhomme.
"Now I consider myself the winner." -- Spanish cyclist Oscar Pereiro, who likely will be named the Tour winner if Landis is stripped of the title.
"God Bless, Went Camping." -- Sign posted in the front yard of Landis' parents, Paul and Arlene, in Farmersville, Pa.
"It'll cause the folks trying to explain this to have to shift their ground from it being due to natural causes or beer or Jack Daniels. There's the usual parade of explanations. I think probably they wish they hadn't made some of them." -- Dick Pound, chairman of the World Anti-Doping Agency.
"Obviously, the credibility has been tested for many years. Cycling does have the most stringent testing, it's still not enough for me. There's a code of silence that needs to change. There's a change in Europe with UCI in a positive way. Unfortunately, it took something of this stature to wake people up, with the Tour winner to lose the title." -- Greg LeMond, three-time Tour winner.
"One of the most critical issues facing sport at every level is the issue of doping. Our position on this is unequivocal: If you dope, you are absolutely not welcome on the United States Olympic Team." -- Darryl Seibel, U.S. Olympic Committee spokesman.
"It's awful. It's ugly. It harms the Tour de France and sports in general. In any event, it's all just a circus, and the circus will carry on." -- Jean-Louis Cailhol of Nancy, France.
PHOTOS Photos: Check out the scenes from the start of the race in Strasbourg to the finish line in Paris.
ON OUR SITEFLASHBACK Lance Armstrong wins his seventh consecutive Tour de France and bids goodbye to competitive cycling.
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Landis' second test confirmed a first, showing higher-than-allowable levels of testosterone, leaving the American in danger of becoming the first Tour winner to be stripped of the champion's yellow jersey for doping.
Race organizers no longer consider Landis the winner, but only the International Cycling Union can strip him of the title. Landis insists he is innocent; he and his defense team are beginning a disciplinary process that could take months.
"The yellow jersey must not be sullied," Tour director Christian Prudhomme told France-2 TV. "It is a huge waste."
Unlike their tough treatment of seven-time Tour winner Lance Armstrong, French media heaped praise on Landis for his show of grit to rebound from a near-disastrous performance in Stage 16.
Many fans hailed Landis' stunning win in the 17th stage, when he erased nearly all of an 8 minute, 8 second deficit to then-race leader Oscar Pereiro of Spain.
Former Tour director, Jean-Marie Leblanc, called the ride "the best performance in the modern history of the Tour" _ and fellow riders were astonished at the time.
"There is no drug that exists that could make a guy do that," said British rider David Millar, who returned to the Tour this year after a two-year doping ban. "That was just otherworldly."
But Landis' urine samples, taken following that stage, tested positive, and the mood has grown somber.
"I regret this situation, because we experienced a beautiful Tour de France, with a lot of drama and a lot of suspense about who'd win," said former rider Richard Virenque, who won the polka-dot jersey of the Tour's best climber a record seven times.
In 1998, Virenque's Festina squad was ejected from the Tour after customs officers found a large stash of performance-enhancing drugs in a team car. He was once the poster-boy for doping in French cycling.